ProMED Mail has reported on new outbreaks of HPAI strain H5N1 in two nations in South America. Bolivia reported a case requiring depopulation of 35,000 laying hens in the community of Catachilla in Cochabamba Department on January 21st. Concurrently an outbreak was diagnosed in a backyard farm in Quillacollo, Cochabamba. According to an initial investigation the two cases were not linked.
Ecuador has reported an H5 isolate from Black-headed gulls in Santa Elena and in a Blue-footed Booby in El Oro in the Santa Clara Island Marine Reserve. During November the first case of H5N1 avian influenza was detected in commercial poultry in Ecuador and ten outbreaks have been reported since this time.
Outbreaks have been reported in Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile and Costa Rica involving backyard flocks, commercial farms and wild birds that are regarded as the disseminators of H5N1 HPAI virus in the 2022/23 panornitic.
Affected nations are on established migratory flyways that currently do not include Brazil and areas east of the Andes range.